The invention is related to the field of business management tools, and in particular to a business rules orchestrator for execution and orchestration of business rules in a batch environment.
Although typically thought of as an artifact of legacy computing, batch processes remain vital to today's real-time enterprises. Behind the real time systems that power the real time enterprise, such as customer order fulfillment, account management, supply chain scheduling and optimization, or financial trading systems, are regularly-updated back office business systems. Today, batch processes remain essential for one key reason: it is simply not efficient to regenerate a complete forecast or business plan every time the business processes a single event such as an incoming customer order. Real time enterprises do require systems that can support dynamic processes; however, it is best to reserve that capacity for aspects of data or processes for the most volatile high-velocity markets.
Nonetheless, while the need for batch processes hasn't changed, the nature of batch processing today has certainly evolved. For instance, while scheduled batch processes remain relevant for time-related processes such as end-of-period reporting, real time enterprises may require more flexibility for adapting to temporary or permanent market fluctuations, or to planned or unplanned changes in underlying IT infrastructure. Companies are faced with new requirements for managing compliance with increasingly stringent regulatory mandates. This may dictate the need for policy-driven workflows with the capability for dynamically triggering batch processes when specific scenarios are met.